San Diego City Clerk's Archives

Alonzo E. Horton was a founder and builder of New Town, San Diego beginning in the late 1860s. He purchased 960 acres of land on the San Diego Bay, later known as "Horton's Addition." At first, there was much opposition from the residents of "Old Town"; but, new businesses began to flood into the new tract on the harbor, because that is where the ships arrived from the East"New Town" soon became the center of town. Horton was even more successful when local land prices soared in the 1880s. He was the most instrumental man in the development of commerce in San Diego and in the further expansion of the growing city. Horton House hotel and Horton Plaza were major landmarks in town. The A.E. Horton Document Archives include five documents from the City's public records, including his lease of one of his buildings to the City for use as City Hall and an indenture for the sale of land to the City for use as a public park.

Irving J. Gill documents discovered in the City Clerk Archives, City of San Diego, dated 1904 and 1911. Irving Gill, an American architect, (1870-1936), is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Gill came to San Diego in 1893 after working at a Chicago architecture firm with Frank Lloyd Wright. He designed several buildings in San Diego and Southern California which are considered among the region's best. More than a dozen of his designs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His works include: the George W. Marston House, Old Scripps Building at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA (the oldest oceanographic research building in continuous use in the United States), Horton Plaza Fountain, Sunnyslope Lodge, La Jolla Recreational Center, La Jolla Women's Club, The Bishop's School, Ellen Browning Scripps Residence (now the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego), The Green Dragon Cottages in La Jolla, and the Administration Building ... Read More

A collection of document archives relating to Kate O. Sessions, horticulturist, landscaper, city gardener, and nursery and cut flower business owner in San Diego, dating from 1891-1940, from the City Clerk’s Archives, City of San Diego, CA. Miss Sessions is considered the mother of San Diego’s Balboa Park, formerly known as City Park or the Fourteen Hundred Acre Public Park; and the location of the 1915 Panama- California Exposition, the 1916 Panama-California International Exposition and the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition. Documents consist of those Miss Sessions personally submitted to the City of San Diego, as well as those submitted by others but referencing her. The collection features a 1891 letter by Frederick Law Olmsted (considered the father of U. S. landscape architecture) responding to Miss Sessions’ inquiry regarding the planning of City Park accompanied by her handwritten notes presenting his letter to the Common Council of the City of San ... Read More

Supporters of the pigeons in downtown San Diego's Plaza handwritten objections sent to the City Council in 1948 and 1949 regarding the City's proposal to rid the Plaza (across from the U.S. Grant Hotel; since named Horton Plaza Park) of the pigeons by feeding them to the animals at the San Diego Zoo.

Petitions and protests with supporting documentation submitted to the City of San Diego during the years 1902 and 1903 regarding the tunneling through coastal land in La Jolla to access from land the popular sea caves of La Jolla, then known as the Mammoth Caves of La Jolla, creating a tourist and visitor attraction and experience for a small fee. Two La Jollan property owners on Cave Street were interested in the endeavor, Thomas Diamond and Prof. Gustav Schultz